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Lake Dan, Site Of 'Water Wars,' Is Now Peaceful, Full Of Life

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2008

ODESSA - Two tall, gray sandhill cranes serve as the greeting committee at the entrance to Lake Dan Preserve, flanked on the west and north by Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Pump houses for the well fields that lie below the 1,100-acre tract flank the roadway that snakes toward the massive lake, giant live oaks bending to shade its edges.

Dotted with cypress domes, pine flatwoods, wild turkeys, bobcats and deer, Lake Dan is the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program's most recent acquisition.

A fence on the Pasco side separates the preserve from the immense Trinity development that sprawls across the landscape in this once-rural region.

On the natural side, the goal is to protect the underground water supply and the fragile wildlife habitat, said Ross Dickerson, conservation manager for the land program.

"This is a good example of what we are trying to protect," he said, walking along the lake's edge.

This is where the notorious "water wars" between Pinellas and Hillsborough counties took place from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, when excessive groundwater pumping dried up - and in some cases destroyed - wetlands in the area.

The well fields are still operational, but no longer overused.

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